The present invention relates to devices for cleaning paint rollers, and specifically to such devices which direct a spray of water on the roller to both spin the roller and wash the paint from it.
With the present widespread use of water-based paints, paint rollers are generally washed out with water after use, allowed to dry and then reused. Washing the rollers by hand is a time-consuming and unpleasant task, particularly in cold weather; if the roller is not carefully cleaned, it cannot be reused.
To deal with this problem, many attempts have been made to design paint roller cleaners; for example, those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,730,195 to Kay, 3,577,280 to George, 2,938,368 to Bixel, 3,075,534 to Habostad, and 3,472,251 to Parker. In these, the paint roller is mounted by its handle into an enclosure in which a stream of water is directed substantially tangentially onto the outer surface of the roller, causing it to rotate while the paint is washed from it. U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,364 to Smith provides a sleeve upon which the paint roller, removed from its handle, is slided; this assembly is inserted through the open bottom of a housing and snapped into position so that a movable nozzle may be utilized to rotate the roller and wash the paint from it.
These tangentially-spraying prior art paint roller cleaners are not capable of cleaning off paint which may have accumulated on the inside of the roller, around the end plates. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,960 to Krueger, an attempt is made to clean the end plates by giving an axial slant to the outermost of the otherwise nearly tangential sprays; this is not thought to adequately clean the inside of the roller.
For best results, a recently-washed paint roller must be dried before it is re-used. This may be done by rapidly spinning the roller, as suggested in the Krueger patent, or by squeezing as in the construction in U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,529 to Leggett.